Lots of smoke from this fire last night. Reports this morning indicate that it should be pretty much under control.
Anyone thinking of going up to Crystal Palace or into the Fortress from Vic Range Road this weekend should keep an eye on this.

On 5/01/2012 kieranl wrote:>Lots of smoke from this fire last night. Reports this morning indicate>that it should be pretty much under control.>Anyone thinking of going up to Crystal Palace or into the Fortress from>Vic Range Road this weekend should keep an eye on this.

Hi All,

Just received this - although it is dated Tuesday. Just a bit of further info about the fire.

A fire is currently burning in the Grampians National Park. The fire started by lightning,
and was spotted by a Parks Victoria Employee at around 1pm today. (Tuesday)

The fire is currently burning along the eastern side of the Victoria Range in the
Grampians National Park.

Supported by a Level 3 Incident Management Team consisting of DSE, Parks Victoria,
CFA and Victorian Police personnel based at the Horsham Incident Control Centre, a
large amount of resources have been battling the fire throughout the day and continues
tonight.

Due to the large volume of smoke being generated by the fire, experienced CFA
and Parks Vic personnel will be on the ground in the coming days providing relevant
information to community members in the Mirranatwa area.

It's interesting that earlier today the DSE/CFA website was absolutely saturated with advice notices for anything that resembled a community around the Grampians. The map was overloaded with what was essentially duplicate, low-level information ("You're seeing smoke, don't worry"), making it hard to see the important stuff - where the fire is. I was wondering how useful that was going to be on a bad fire day but they've now cleared it up.

Interesting the discrepanies between the CFA and DSE websites.
Sawmill Track Fire last Update on DSE site was 11:56 (230 Ha), CFA 05:37 (150Ha).
CFA has a Gellantipy fire that's not shown on DSE site.
I had thought they were supposed to offer the same info.

On 6/01/2012 kieranl wrote:>I don't claim to be a master of the intuitive interface - did you find>the message?

I found the thread, I saw mr marsh's update first, then your response before referencing yours up the top. I'm just saying...
(also, by addign the extra post down the bottom it also brings the thread back into prominence)

On 5/01/2012 kieranl wrote:>Interesting the discrepanies between the CFA and DSE websites.>Sawmill Track Fire last Update on DSE site was 11:56 (230 Ha), CFA 05:37>(150Ha).>CFA has a Gellantipy fire that's not shown on DSE site.>I had thought they were supposed to offer the same info.

CFA manages fires on private land, most of which are small grass fires in paddocks - 15 of them yesterday (Thursday). DSE don't attend them and as they don't deploy anyone the fire won't be on their website. DSE manages fire on public land and CFA normally assist and so they tend to appear on both maps. If it is a DSE led fire the info will go to their website first and trickle across to the CFA one - eventually.

On 8/01/2012 ademmert wrote:>Just back from the vic range nothing seemed closed except goat track which>we came across. and dse on local radio stated no camp grounds were closed.>had a good few days in a deserted vic range.
Whereabouts where you Adam? The closure notice lists pretty much every road in the Vic Range except Red Rock Road.
On the radio they're emphasising that all of the popular areas and campgrounds are still open. Obviously don't want a repeat of all the tourists staying away in droves from perfectly safe areas.
This morning on the radio they were saying that they hope to make the fire area "safe" by the end of the week, it's currently just "controlled". While it's now a lot cooler, it's also been quite windy.

This bushfire is now controlled. Parks Victoria and DSE have reopened walking tracks and camping grounds except for the Fortress walking track (still closed due to storm damage in January 2011). All park roads in this area are open except for the following 4wd tracks.

Road Closures

Red Hill Road from the Glenelg River Road
Sawmill Road from Redhill and Syphon Road

We camped at buandik, climbed at ruined castle and weirs creek.
Bit of smoke around at weirs creek and buandick on wednesday but all was fine
we also drove arond the bottom on gleng river rd upto Jensons, where it was closed and around the top along lodge rd and all was open. the only rd that effected us was the goat track was closed!

Lots of fires about in Grampians tonight. None of them look very threatening at the moment but with all the thunderstorms more may start.
If heading to Vic Range there are fires on Sawmill Track and Jensens Rd. Probably nothing too significant but always possibility of closed roads.
If you're heading out for the weekend keep an eye on the CFA or DSE fire sites.

Very worrying, lots of lightning up to the north (towards Gramps), hopefully no new fires. Lived in my patch of bush for 20 odd years, never seen it so dry. Get the gear off people and start the rain dances.